El Cajon Police sign
Exterior of El Cajon Police Department headquarters. Courtesy of the department

A 49-year-old man was thrown from his vehicle and fatally injured Thursday morning when two pickup trucks collided in an El Cajon intersection.

The 2001 Nissan Frontier and 1999 Ford F150 crashed a little before 12:35 a.m. at the intersection of Jamacha Road and East Main Street, El Cajon Police Lt. Stephen Kirk said.

When officers and paramedics arrived, they found both badly damaged trucks disabled in the intersection, with witnesses tending to a man on the ground in the roadway. That man, the Frontier’s 49-year-old driver, was pronounced dead at the scene, Kirk said. His name was withheld pending family notifications.

The Ford’s 34-year-old driver was uninjured, though footage from CBS8 appeared to show him distraught.

A preliminary investigation determined the Ford was eastbound on East Main Street and the Nissan was traveling north on Jamacha Road when they crashed, though it wasn’t immediately clear who was at fault, Kirk said. Investigators did not immediately know if alcohol or drugs were involved.

The intersection was closed for several hours and drivers were asked to avoid the area as police wrapped up their investigation, but it was expected to reopen before 8 a.m.

— City News Service

Chris Jennewein is Editor & Publisher of Times of San Diego.